


Summer Before the Fall

by Tarlan



Category: Haven - Fandom
Genre: Episode Related, F/M, POV Male Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-13
Updated: 2016-01-13
Packaged: 2018-05-13 20:13:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,019
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5715634
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tarlan/pseuds/Tarlan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After Nathan gives him the ring, William must decide what to do with this unexpected gift from his former rival.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Summer Before the Fall

William looked down at the ring Nathan had given him, recognizing its design instantly. It was similar to the one Mara had always worn, and yet it was missing some of the fine imperfections that he could recall from their time together. This wasn't Mara's ring but he could feel the energy running through it, reacting to him as easily as the aether that he had wielded earlier. He smiled wryly, realizing the ring was made of aether, bound together on a molecular level to hold its form. Nathan said this ring could take him out of the void, back to his own people, and he believed him. Except Nathan thought it could take him to only one place, but William knew he would be able to open his own thinny and simply step through to any world he wished, including the human world. Except there was nothing left there for him now.

Mara was gone. Dead.

The pity in Nathan's eyes had convinced him it was the truth and he dwelt on Nathan's words for a moment longer, that even he didn't belong in the void.

Even he.

Nathan, his 'rival', had shown him mercy in return for the beneficence he had extended in helping Nathan find his way back to Haven - and Audrey.

William knew he wouldn't be welcomed back with open arms, not after all he and Mara had done in the human world, but for the first time in centuries the thought of home made him ache inside. He'd been in exile for so long, for centuries, using the aether to keep him cloaked from the darkness trapped in the void with him: Croatoan. Others had come during those long years but without the protection of the aether, Croatoan had found them and fed off their life energy.

Sinking back onto the rock ledge behind him, William stared down intently at the ring held in the palm of his hand, and he let his thoughts wander back to that last bright summer with Mara, five centuries ago.

He'd been just a lowly lab technician, fresh from the place of learning and intrigued by the work Mara's father was doing with aether. He recalled the first time he saw her, breezing into her father's laboratory and lighting up the gloomy place with her presence. She was beautiful, and she captured his heart with a smile and never let it go. Not even now after acknowledging to Nathan that she had never loved him as much as he had loved her. He had always known it, but it had never mattered until he saw the way Audrey Parker looked at Nathan Wuornos.

How many times had he dreamed of seeing that same dreamy look in her eyes as she gazed upon him? A hundred times? A thousand?

He thought they were bound together forever that summer after her father was exiled into the void for his dangerous and - to the Elders - immoral work with the aether that had tainted him to the core of his being. Her father had been her world and her hate for the Elders had driven her to the human world, to Haven. She had wanted to find a way to hit back at them, wanting to use the aether to devise a weapon she could use to force their hand and return her father. Whether it was simply love blinding him or naivety, he had followed her, learning from her how to wield the aether.

That summer was imprinted on his memory, and if he closed his eyes he could still see her bright eyes and hear her laughter as they made their home in an abandoned cottage on the edge of the town. They conjured up native clothing from the aether so they could blend in with the townsfolk, and no one questioned their presence as they wandered through the town, picking and choosing their targets. Some made it so easy for them, firing their imagination with their antics or attitudes. Later on those long, warm summer days they would walk through the woods together discussing Troubles and counter-Troubles they could inflict on the unwary townspeople, or he would lie with his head in her lap surrounded by the sweet meadow grass on Haven Lookout as they laid their plans. Her favorite place. On the hottest days they would find a deserted stretch of shore and wade into the ocean naked, kissing and caressing until she allowed him to carry her back to the beach and lay her down on her thick cloak where they would make love until the sun set.

His fingertips still tingled in memory of her damp, silken skin, and his lips still remembered her taste and touch, and grief filled him from knowing this would never be more than memory from this day forward. Mara was gone forever rather than simply torn from him temporarily as each of them was punished for their work over that long summer.

His thoughts came back to the cave surrounding him on all sides, and to the ring glinting in the palm of his hand. He slipped it onto his finger, a perfect fit providing further proof that this had not been Mara's ring for it had been made for a man's thicker finger. Mara's father, perhaps, for he had worn a ring similar to the ones he bestowed upon his daughter and wife. Charlotte.

If Nathan was telling the truth and Croatoan was in Haven then he could remain in the void indefinitely, perhaps build a better life for himself without the constant fear of Croatoan lurking at the back of his mind. Or perhaps it was time to face up to what he had done in the name of a twisted form of love, and see if five hundred years in exile was punishment enough to find mercy at the hands of his own people.

He stood up and stared ahead of him as he touched the ring and conjured up a thinny between the void and another world. His world.

It was time to go home.

END  
 


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